Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Illegal Migration Bill providing that individuals who are declared inadmissible are not able to secure bail until a 28-day period has elapsed, how they plan to operate Short Term Holding Units in the event that the Bill becomes an Act.

The purpose of rule 35 of the Detention Centre Rules 2001 is to ensure that people in detention who are particularly vulnerable are brought to the attention of those with direct responsibility for authorising, maintaining and reviewing detention. Rule 35 is a reporting mechanism, and where a report is completed, it does not automatically mean that the person should be released.

The Bill creates new detention powers which will allow the Home Secretary to detain a person pending a decision as to whether the new duty to remove applies, and thereafter to detain pending their removal.

For the first 28 days of detention, those who are detained under the new detention powers within the Illegal Migration Bill will be prevented from challenging their detention during this period by way of judicial review. An individual will be able to apply to the Home Secretary for bail during this period, although that decision may not be challenged by way of judicial review during the first 28 days. An individual may make an application to the High Court for a writ of habeas corpus (or the equivalent in Scotland) to seek release at any time.

Where people are detained for the purpose of removal, they will usually be detained in Immigration Removal Centres. Short-term Holding Facilities are usually used to detain individuals on arrival to the UK, for the purpose of initial examination, which would include an assessment of whether the new duty to remove applies.